Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a terminal device, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus and a terminal device in which operations are executed by user's “pinch-in (pinch-close)” and “pinch-out (pinch-open)” gestures on a touch panel.
Description of the Related Art
Some of image forming apparatuses, such as a copier, a printer and their compound machine, MFP (Multi-Functional Peripheral), store image data as a file, and exchange that file with another device, such as a personal digital assistant, connected through a network.
On the other hand, devices such as personal digital assistants having a touch panel are increasing, and a user interface using a touch panel is becoming widespread. As an example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-123369, for example, proposes a technique of scrolling the contents displayed on a screen when a different operation from a usual press-down operation is performed. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-163444 discloses a technique as an electronic book having a function of providing date information for user-indicated information or user-input information for automatic storage in a file folder, wherein a range is indicated using a finger movement history in an input operation with a finger. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-163193 discloses a technique as an electronic book capable of outputting, on a display, information provided with a page number as image information on a page basis, wherein a page turn-over input and book mark insertion are performed based on a detected finger contact pressure, a contact area and a finger moving direction. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-076926 discloses a technique of turning over pages based on a moving amount and a direction of finger contact movement, and changing the number of pages turned over depending on the number of touching fingers.
For example, in a situation where a plurality of apparatuses may be used in an office or the like, an apparatus intended to execute processing may differ from an apparatus intended to instruct execution of the processing. Moreover, an apparatus intended to execute processing may differ from an apparatus holding information for use in the processing.
In such a case, even when a technique as proposed in the above-mentioned pieces of literature is employed, different manipulations need to be performed on two apparatuses, respectively, and the manipulation in each apparatus needs to be performed repeatedly, which results in complicated manipulations.